TurboSquid Debuts CheckMate Certification Program

Leading Stock 3D Resource Pioneers Quality Standard

New Orleans, LA (PRWEB) August 08, 2011

TurboSquid is pleased to introduce CheckMate(TM) Certification, the industry’s first standard for 3D models. CheckMate is a major step forward for quality in the stock 3D industry and holds 3D models to a quality standard for the very first time.

TurboSquid developed CheckMate after two years of research with production artists in games, broadcast, films, advertising, and architectural visualization. "Up until now, quality from model to model varied too much," says Matt Wisdom, CEO of TurboSquid. "We address this problem by establishing universal standards for the highest quality, CheckMate Pro, and basic reliability, CheckMate Lite."

Developing the Standard
Historically, there have been no consistent 3D modeling standards for artists to follow--quality within the stock 3D industry has been based on artists’ personal standards or on narrow guidelines within a specific industry or company. TurboSquid, with its 2M+ member base and 20K+ supplier artists, was uniquely qualified to develop the CheckMate standard and create a certification program around it. “There was a major void that we felt we were in a position to address," says Paul Teall, General Manager of the TurboSquid Artist Group and leader of the CheckMate team. "3D artists finally have detailed guidelines on what customers want in a model. In turn, customers will experience stock 3D in a whole new way."

To develop the CheckMate standard, TurboSquid discussed 3D model needs with seasoned production artists across a variety of industries and surveyed its customer base extensively. TurboSquid also ran a six-month beta program with selected top sellers and customers before settling on the Pro and Lite levels of CheckMate Certification. CheckMate Pro demands the utmost quality in geometry, textures, and presentation with a rigorous 44-point inspection. The CheckMate Lite standard, which focuses on reliability in both the product description and the model itself, uses a 15-point inspection. Both standards call for quality not only in the 3D model itself but also in the model's presentation at TurboSquid, which shows customers everything they need to know about the model prior to making a purchasing decision.

TurboSquid developed a suite of proprietary automation tools to check models at a technical level, but Teall points out that these tests will never take the place of human judgment. "A 3D artist with a trained eye opens up each model, looks at it, and renders the model," says Teall. "Our tools can tell you about the model's poly count, topology, and so on, but in the end, a person has to decide if it makes the cut for CheckMate." Among the personnel hired by TurboSquid to implement the new program are numerous CheckMate inspectors who manually check each and every model before it's given the badge.

“TurboSquid has always had the widest variety and largest catalog of models, but we felt like it was time to end the game of guessing what’s quality,” says Wisdom. “We now have a clear brand in CheckMate to help customers know what they’re buying. In fact, many customers have said they’ll never buy anything other than CheckMate if it’s available to them, which is a great validation of the artists' and our team’s efforts to bring standards to our industry.”

CheckMate Details
CheckMate models are indicated in TurboSquid search results with a checkmark, blue for Pro and silver for Lite. Only artists exclusive to TurboSquid and participating in the SquidGuild can submit 3D models for CheckMate certification. For more information on CheckMate, visit http://www.turbosquid.com/CheckMate.

About TurboSquid
Founded in 2000, TurboSquid is the leading global marketplace for 3D Models. Customers in every line of production work from Movies, Games, Television News, Architecture, Advertising, Defense and more depend on TurboSquid to save their projects time and money. They are supplied world-class content by the Turbo Squid’s ever growing community of professional modelers.